Mischieveous Nifflers and How to Catch Them
by Emkinz
Summary: Just a short little Fantastic Beasts adventure thing to start off my account. It sorta turns to Newt x Tina in the end, but only a little bit, so if you don't like the ship you may or may not want to read it. Enjoy!


There was a jingling, then a muffled thump outside the window.

Newt Scamander sat up groggily in bed. He knew that jingling.

With alarm, he managed to quietly jump out of bed. Still not completely awake, Newt hastily laced his boots and pulled his long blue coat on over his shirt and waistcoat- the same outfit he hadn't bothered to change after the tiring events of the night before. The window was cracked open.

 _First the obscurus, now this again,_ he thought as he slowly pulled the window open as not to wake anyone up. He seized his leather suitcase, which was on the floor, with the latches undone. Quickly flipping them back down, he stepped onto the bedside table.

Seconds later he had slipped out the window of Tina and Queenie Goldstein's house.

There were a variety of shiny items in the snow where he had expected the niffler to have landed when it squeezed through the window. Following the little trail of footprints and various metal items it left behind, Newt turned his gaze to a watch store down the street. Knowing nifflers, that was exactly where one would go.

Newt made his way to the shop, collecting random items the niffler had left in its path. Straightening up, he heard a crash coming from the store.

"Ohhhhhhh, no," he said to himself, but more likely to the niffler, if it could hear him.

ITaking his case in his hand, he started faster towards the building. The little creature must've squeezed under the door in its efforts, but Newt couldn't tell exactly where it had gone from his place outside the window.

"Alohomora," he whispered, pulling his wand from his coat and pointing it toward the lock. The door clicked and swung slightly open.

Gently putting the suitcase down, he slowly looked around the store for any sign of the niffler, still grasping his wand.

He didn't hesitate to investigate the suspicious pile of gold and silver watches on the floor.

Lunging forwards, he seized the ball of fur just as it was about to give up its disguise. Wriggling free from Newt's hand, however, the niffler scampered across the floor and up a display case, using its little claws to pick the lock and swing the glass door open, dashing in.

"No-" Newt stifled a cry of annoyance and jumped towards the case, but only managing to shut the door loudly with all his momentum. "Ugh- alohomora!"

The niffler scrambled over the displays in the glass case and away from Newt's outstretched hand, sending watches flying. The one door already open, it sprang at the second and it was pushed open as the creature landed on the floor and darted between Newt's legs.

Whirling around, he attempted to grab the niffler, falling to the floor. "Accio, niffler!" He yelled in a last resort, not caring how loud he was.

The platypus-like animal flew through the air and hit the wall behind Newt and began to climb up it, not knowing anything else to do- until it spotted the light fixture, which was made of (obviously) very shiny metal.

"No, no, no. No, don't do that," Newt scolded, hoping desperately the niffler would listen for once. "No- Get down from there! Leave it. Leave it!"

Frantically looking around for something to stand on, he stepped onto another glass display case on the floor and reached for the large chandelier.

"No, no, not again!"

He stumbled, and suddenly was left hanging from the light, which he knew could fall any second now. This was just not what he needed- a replay from the day before. He managed to swivel the fixture around, his feet meeting the glass box below him. However, during all this commotion, the niffler had jumped neatly onto the top of another cabinet and was busy stuffing various items into its pouch.

Newt released the metal chandelier, standing on top of the display case.

"Reparo," he said hastily, aiming at the light fixture and stepping off of the display.

He located the niffler on the cabinet and scanned the room for a means of getting on up. Seeing no other possible way, he opened the door of the cabinet and reluctantly fixed his foot between two shelves, putting his wand between his teeth and pulling himself up to the niffler's level. The creature, having had spotted Newt, was trying as hard as possible to fit the one last watch into his pouch before darting away, but Newt was faster. He grabbed the niffler and was about to make his way back down when the door to the shop opened.

 _Five Minutes Earlier_

Tina Goldstein opened the door to her bedroom and stepped out, yawning. She couldn't sleep, not with the events of earlier still playing in her mind. She decided she would try and find Newt to see if he was awake, as well, as she knew him well enough already to know that he didn't always sleep at night- he was often down in his suitcase, doing one thing or another with his creatures.

Tina made her way to Newt's bedroom and knocked gently on the door. "Newt?" She called softly.

There was no answer. She figured he might just be down in the case and eventually convinced herself it was acceptable to just crack open the door to check.

"Newt."

But the suitcase wasn't there, and his bed was empty, with the sheets thrown across it-

As if he'd left very suddenly.

She stepped into the room and looked around. His distinctive trench coat was nowhere to be found, implying he had thrown it on as he had left, and his boots were gone as well. As if to confirm her suspicions, the window had been left open a crack, and his wand was missing from its usual place on the bed stand.

She sighed. " _Newt_..."

Tina hastily threw on her coat and put on her shoes and quietly opened the front door of the flat. Sure enough, outside Newt's bedroom window, there were a number of footprints- both of his boots and of tiny claw marks. Leading... up to the watch store across the street?

"Ohhhhhhh, no," she said to herself, but more likely to Newt and what she suspected was the niffler, if they could hear her.

Now genuinely concerned, Tina hurried down the street on Newt's trail and to the shop. The door was no longer locked and she threw it open.

Halfway up a cabinet, holding a struggling niffler, hair sticking up in random directions and wand between his teeth, stood a very disheveled-looking Newt Scamander.

" _What_ on Earth are you _doing_ up there, Newt?" Tina said, still standing in the doorway.

Newt slowly clambered down from his place on the cabinet, still grasping the niffler tightly.

"I- I was- the niffler was, er, up there, obviously, and, well, I had to get him. You know, out of here," he explained, finally looking around at the mess he and the niffler had made of the store. "Oh, um, right. S- sorry?"

Tina, as much as she did get slightly annoyed with Newt's antics sometimes, smiled at him, even with the mess in front of her. "Reparo."

With a bit of work, the shop was cleared up and the niffler returned to the case and they left the shop, locking the door behind them.

Walking home, Newt thought it was only fair to apologize to Tina after all this. "Look- um, I really am... sorry... for all of this."

She looked up at him- the funny man with the suitcase and the blue coat, and all the creatures. He did get into quite a lot of trouble sometimes, but she knew that she really did love her friend, even through everything that had happened.

"You know what? That's.. okay. It's all okay," she said, and kissed his cheek.

Newt was quite happy that in the moonlight, she couldn't see him blushing.


End file.
